About Us

The US military prepares many of its leaders for war at the Military Academy at West Point. At the East Point Peace Academy, we invest in creating leaders working for peace.

The East Point Peace Academy is an organization dedicated to bringing about a culture of peace through training, education and the practice of Nonviolence and Conflict Reconciliation. We are grounded in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, and work with incarcerated populations, youth, activists and community leaders working to bring about the Beloved Community.

We come from the traditions of the Nashville Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, the leaders of whom trained for a full year before engaging in direct action, and Gandhi and his 78 followers who went through a 15-year process of training and self purification before embarking on the Salt March.

We believe that in order for us to create a peaceful world, we need to invest as much into peace as the military invests into war. Investments not only in money, but in time, commitment, strategy, unity and training.

Through training and education, East Point transforms the hearts and minds of individuals, connecting them to a broader history of nonviolent social change movements, and inspiring them to become advocates for transforming the policies, cultures and value systems of their communities.

Comments

I appreciate all the wonderful work that you do in creating a culture of nonviolence. I came upon your organization recently and very impressed by the work that you do. As I read through your website, I just had a few quibbles and wanted to ask you about those. I’d appreciate hearing from you.

You mention: “We believe that in order for us to create a peaceful world, we need to invest as much into peace as the military invests into war. ” That sounds to me like a game to match investment in peace compared to investment in war. While the military establishment is a reality right now, I assume our goal is not to keep building the peace movement to measure up to the military, but also to reduce the military to a point when no investment in war needs to be made.

The other thing, your mission statement reads: “East Point Peace Academy works to build a powerful, nonviolent army of peace warriors: …”. Why use the language/metaphor of war like “army” and “warriors” in your mission statement? Michael Nagler mentions how the use of ‘violent’ language can be harmful for the purposes of peace. I don’t want to see another “war on drugs” or “war on poverty”, I want to see a people’s movement to end poverty.

These, by no means, diminish the important work that you do. This is just something that stood out to me and I wanted to reach out to you as a supporter.